Morinaga’s $136M Mebane Plant and What 204 Manufacturing Jobs Mean for Orange County

Morinaga America Foods cut the ribbon on April 21, 2026 on its second HI-CHEW candy factory in Mebane, a $136 million investment that creates 204 jobs in Orange County and roughly doubles the company’s U.S. production capacity. The 132,000-square-foot plant is expected to be fully operational by October 2026. For passive real estate investors, the part worth watching isn’t the candy, it’s what a second decade of steady manufacturing payrolls does to housing and retail demand on the Triangle’s western edge.

The Announcement

Morinaga America Foods, the U.S. manufacturing arm of Japan’s Morinaga & Co. (founded 1899), has produced HI-CHEW fruity chews in Mebane since 2015, when it chose North Carolina for its first production site outside Asia. We first covered this second-plant expansion when Morinaga announced it in 2024; the facility is now built, and the job count has firmed up from early estimates to a confirmed 204. The new plant nearly doubles the company’s Mebane capacity to keep pace with rising U.S. demand and a growing roster of retail partners.

By the numbers:

• 204 new jobs in Orange County
• $136 million capital investment
• Food and confectionery manufacturing, HI-CHEW fruity chews
• 132,000+ square feet, doubling production capacity and adding 1.2 billion chewlets a year
• Fully operational by October 2026
• Reported average wage near $67,000 for production, quality-assurance, and maintenance roles

Who’s involved:

• Morinaga America Foods, operator of the new plant; U.S. manufacturing subsidiary of Japan’s Morinaga & Co.
• Office of the Governor of North Carolina and the NC Department of Commerce, state-level partners
• Orange County and the City of Mebane, local government
• Consulate-General of Japan in Atlanta, reflecting the long-running Japan, North Carolina investment relationship

The Local Story: Where Mebane Sits in the Triangle

Mebane is a fast-growing small city of roughly 20,000 that straddles the Orange, Alamance county line, sitting almost exactly midway between the Triangle and the Triad on the I-85 / I-40 corridor. That position has quietly made it one of the region’s busiest manufacturing and logistics magnets, close enough to draw on Research Triangle talent, cheaper to build on than Durham or Chapel Hill, and wired into the interstate in every direction. Morinaga has operated here for a decade, anchored among a cluster of distribution and advanced-manufacturing employers strung along the corridor. It’s the kind of mid-size NC town that rarely makes national headlines but keeps adding payrolls year after year.

What makes the location work:

• A midpoint on I-85 / I-40 between Durham and Greensboro, direct access to two metros and a deep regional workforce shed
• An established local industrial base, Morinaga has run in Mebane since 2015 alongside distribution and advanced-manufacturing neighbors
• Lower land and building costs than the Triangle core, with Triangle-grade labor inside a 45-minute drive
• One of the faster-growing pockets on the Triangle’s western edge, with steady household growth across Orange and Alamance Counties

How This Affects Housing and Retail Demand

We follow announcements like this because they kick off a predictable sequence:

• New jobs draw new workers
• New workers form new households, most rent first
• Households need housing within a reasonable commute
• Households need day-to-day services nearby: grocery, medical, fitness, restaurants, daycare
• Workforce housing demand rises; neighborhood-serving retail rises with it
• New development follows; new jobs follow that

The Triangle’s western edge has been running this cycle quietly for years. Morinaga’s second plant doesn’t change the direction, it adds another decade-long leg to a corridor that keeps compounding.

Where the ripple lands:

• Mebane and Orange County, direct hiring impact at the plant and a growing local tax base
• Alamance County (Burlington, Graham), the shared western half of Mebane’s workforce shed, 10–20 minutes out
• Hillsborough, Chapel Hill, and Durham, the eastern commuter shed within a 30–45 minute drive
• The I-85 / I-40 corridor between the Triangle and the Triad, where manufacturing payrolls compound year over year

For investors looking for steady cash flow, capital preservation, and anchor-employer durability, the corridor between the Triangle and the Triad just added another multi-year leg.

Sources

• Office of the Governor of North Carolina, April 21, 2026
• Morinaga & Co. / PR Newswire, grand opening release